Holland couldn’t control who didn’t know about Claudia confronting them—in a school like RMI it seemed inevitable that people would find out, although hopefully it wouldn’t become a big deal outside of their circle—but they could control who knew. The day after the argument, after trying on four different outfits until they found one that felt comfortable, they’d told Marissa and Emmett. They’d given Emmett specific instructions not to punch, send someone else to punch, or otherwise retaliate against Claudia. Last time, with Lucien, “You don’t have to punch him” had left some room for interpretation. Holland had had no intention of post-RMI contact with Lucien or his family members, so that had been fine. This time, it wouldn’t make them feel better or help them in the long run if Emmett punched Claudia.

Holland had also told Rose, not in search of sympathy but because it felt weird to exclude her from something they were sharing with the rest of the group. They were very deliberately not telling Ruben. Holland didn’t think he would go after Claudia the way he had with Camilla and Lucien, because Claudia was only a fourth-year and Ruben had some standards, but since he had promised to bring the fire against prejudiced purebloods for Holland and Danny, they couldn’t be sure. It was better not to let him have the chance to take things into his own hands.

Then Holland had gone to find Maverick. Sometimes you needed someone who’d get it.

Mave was in the practical lab, the second place Holland had looked after the theater. “Hey,” they greeted him, closing the door behind them. No one else was here. Good. “I really need to talk to you.” When Maverick gave them the go-ahead, Holland told him everything. They told him about Claudia approaching them under the pretense of friendship. They told him about her request, their refusal, and the argument, as much word-for-word as they could remember. And they told him about the effects of Claudia’s spell: their sudden veneration of pureblood society, the realization that their disruption of the system made them a selfish traitor, and their certainty that everything anyone had ever said about them being attention-seeking and unnatural and wrong was true.

“I’m not stupid, I didn’t think everything would just be fine,” Holland said, when they had finished telling Maverick how the staff had handled the situation. “We knew there would be problems. And if that’s how Claudia feels, there’s not much I can do to change her mind.” Holland would never, for example, force someone to believe what they did by magical manipulation. Right now they didn’t want to speak to Claudia ever again. That wasn’t a viable solution, but it would work for the near future, hopefully until Holland was less angry at her. They weren’t sure if they would ever be less angry, although they felt much better now than they had right after the incident. Danny had helped. “But she got in my head. I can’t un-know what believing that feels like. It’s just really pineappled up,” they concluded, looking at Maverick for confirmation.

“Hey.” Maverick’s attention diverted from the marble statue he was currently working on - a large shark head, like the one on movie posters - at the sound of the familiar voice. It was Holland. Good. ... more

“ I knew it. This place is just like all the others. ” Holland knew what Maverick’s other places had been like, and they didn’t want that to be true. An individual holding a prejudice—even a few... more